I'm hearing a lot of cries for respect here. For example, from "muhammed (pbuh) is the best", who claims that "all the world must respect our prophet..." Why? And what does this "respect" entail? Does s/he mean that non-Muslims should behave like Muslims with respect to the Muslim prophet, Muhammed? Apparently so. To me, that goes beyond respect to conversion. But what if I don't want to be Muslim? What about respecting me? Do I have as much right to respect as a dead Muslim? Do the signers of the petition see my non-Muslim behavior with regard to their prophet as an affront to Islam? Yes.

For example, if I were to state my educated belief that Muhammed raided the caravans of Jewish merchants, murdered them, and stole their property in order to fund his new religion--that would be offensive. And yet this is just historical information. And what about respecting my desire to share such information with others? I'm not allowed to be respected in that case, because respecting my anti-Muhammed beliefs would be in itself blasphemous.

You see the trouble here? There is a lack of tolerance on the part of these petitioners. Tolerance means you allow people with other beliefs to exist. You don't try to intimidate them into changing their beliefs. You don't try to convert them. You don't expect them to obey your doctrines. If they want to ridicule your prophet (and thereby disobey one of your doctrines), you take it in stride. That is tolerance. Is your faith really that flimsy that it can't withstand a little ridicule? All the other major religions of the world have been withstanding ridicule for centuries. Why should Islam be afforded any special "respect" beyond what Christianity, Judaism, etc. enjoy? Because of the threat of violence? Of course.

This is exactly why people who love and believe in liberty will not back down to such hollow and hypocritical cries for "respect." For one thing, respect is a two-way street: we who love liberty would like to see liberty respected, and we who really love liberty are not going to be dissuaded by threats of violence. For another thing, it's not respect these petitioners want, but obedience.

All of that said, I believe the compromise described by the author would be a sensible and tolerant concession to an intolerant group.